façade
by sea-salt kisses
Summary: Sora doesn't know what stings more: the fact that he found out about Riku and Kairi hooking up secondhand from Selphie, or the fact that Riku and Kairi hooked up in the first place. — AU.


**title:** faҫade.  
**characters:** sora, axel, riku and others.  
**pairings:** one-sided soriku. one-sided akuroku. rokunam. rikai.  
**prompt:** "there are always two sides to every story." — anonymous.  
**rating:** t for adolescent-centric subject matter and mild language and also just to be safe  
because ff dot net is getting ri-dic-u-lous with the rating policies and story deletions; surely t-rating  
encompasses all potential things that this story could be doing... but just in case, i'll add a warning section.  
**warnings:** mild language, which here means axel said shit once, one-sided slash, angsty-ness, au, high school, selphie being gossip queen extraordinaire, sora being a trooper and needing a hug badly, random characters thrown in at will for not much real purpose, looking at you tifa and rikku and yuffie, the overused-cliche of roxas and sora being twins, probably a lot of high school cliches anyway, not a single care is given, axel smoking a cigarette like a sexy badass, don't smoke cigarettes kids you'll die, even though axel looks fine with something in his mouth, no that is not an innuendo, or is it? and surely that is _it_. if somehow i've missed something and ff dot net deletes this story, i'm never uploading another story here again. you can quote me on it.  
**dedication:** to the tumblr monthly drabble challenge for inspiring me to write something, and even though i only made it to day four before vacation happened and writing just died for me, i wrote four drabbles in four days, the most i've written in a long time. so it deserves major props. and now i'll shut up so you can read the story, if you're even reading this anyway, orz;; love you babies.  
**word count:** 1,300+; drabble

* * *

Sora doesn't know what stings more: the fact that he found out about Riku and Kairi hooking up secondhand from Selphie, or the fact that Riku and Kairi hooked up in the first place.

"They're like, super adorable, aren't they?" Selphie sighs, cupping her chin in one manicured hand and twirling a lock of sorrel curl with the other. Sora grips the stone wall he perches atop, succeeding in biting down a remark to the opposite of her fancy. The brunet looks from the pinwheel of her hair and toward the lawn of the school, where students lay out across their backpacks or stand in circles, kicking hacky sacks and throwing frisbees. Blue eyes fixate on one couple in particular. Sora can only think that they're aesthetically perfect, with Riku leaning against the curve of an oak tree and Kairi's head in his lap, the girl reading and highlighting her advanced Chem text with Riku's fingers trailing gingerly through her hair.

The boy sighs softly, inaudibly, nodding as he summons a smile to his face that catches Selphie's breath in her chest. The girl is still taken aback by how lovely Sora is when he smiles – everyone is, really. It's the boy's trademark after all, and the sophomore girls swoon beneath its warmth. "Yep! They're like yin and yang. Really balance each other out."

What he wants to say is that it isn't fair, that Kairi has dated Tidus and Wakka and that stoner kid Demyx, and now she's laying in Riku's lap when Sora hasn't even been kissed yet. The brunet wants to march down there and pour chocolate milk on her, and maybe save some cafeteria cole slaw to rub on Riku's expertly ironed dress shirt.

But what he does is balk at his behavior towards his best friends, and smile his award-winning smile and hide his hurt behind a wall of white teeth and landing-strip lips.

It's high school after all, and unrequited love is like mystery meat – abundant and sticky in the worst of ways.

* * *

"So Riku, Kairi huh?"

His best friend is five inches taller than him, and when he turns his blue eyes to Sora, the boy can only think of how far he'd have to teeter on tiptoe to reach those parted lips. How on Earth could Kairi reach?

Instead of immediately replying, Riku adapts a look of smug curiosity. "What about Kairi and I?" A lightly chastising smile grips the silveret's lips. "Let me guess – you've been spending a little too much time with Yuffie and Rikku?"

"Selphie, actually." Yuffie and Rikku were the other gossip staple for the school, but they focused more on the dark, dangerous boys with harsh, convoluted relationships. Sora had approached them only once, to find out if his brother Cloud had _actually_ scored with Tifa Lockheart or not, and if the incessant bragging had an ounce of validity. He'd lost a bet that day, and learned that Rikku's perfume smelled of paopu fruits, just like Kairi's. "And really Ri, lounging on the front lawn and hanging all over each other? You're not exactly treating it like a secret."

"Glad to know my privacy's non-existent then," the elder grunts in response, adjusting his bag across his shoulders and oblivious to the turmoil of the boy beside him. "Why did you ask, anyway?"

_Because I love you. Because you love Kairi and didn't care enough to tell me._ "Because I _like_ Kairi, and I have to protect her from creeps like you."

Riku laughs, the sound a deep, joyful timbre, clapping Sora on the back and steering him towards the table. Olette, Hayner, and Pence are already there along with Kairi, who smiles and waves at Sora before turning her attention to Riku. She blows him a kiss. An almost invisible pink tinges Riku's cheeks before he releases Sora's shoulder and makes for the redheaded girl in pink.

Somewhere in the vicinity of his sternum, Sora's heart begins to break.

* * *

"How does it feel?"

Axel looks up from the end of his cigarette, eyes glowing in the dark like neon against stark white schlera. Sora had followed him onto Demyx's terrace after the taller boy had escaped the birthday party for a smoke, and now the older boy had his eyes trained directly onto Sora. "How's what feel?"

For a moment, the boy is shy. Axel is not his best friend. He is not Riku or Kairi. Axel really isn't even a friend. He's never been Sora's relation.

He gathers his courage and takes a step closer. "Loving someone who doesn't love you back."

Axel's expression darkens and tightens, a defensive anger and an air of distrust clouding his expression. Soon it ebbs away into aged sadness, a longing that will never be fulfilled.

A sigh, and a long drag later, and Axel says his piece. "Like shit, obviously." Green eyes lower to meet blue. "Riku or Kairi?"

Hesitation, and Sora laughs softly. "Does it matter?"

"Not really, I guess. But if you want to talk about it, shoot. It won't fill the emptiness but it can soothe the ache."

There's a pang in Sora's side as he gazes at Axel. Axel loves his best friend, Roxas. Roxas loves Kairi's sister, Naminé. Sora wonders if the way he feels when he looks at Riku – the hopelessness, the desolation – if it's the same for Axel when he looks at Roxas. The feeling of inadequacy and heart-wrench. The hatred. The guilt.

Sora doesn't say anything, and once he finishes the cigarette, Axel leaves with a cloud of acrid smoke odor in his wake. Sora watches from the window as the redhead saunters in and moves to leave, saying his goodbyes to Demyx and Zexion and Larxene and Marluxia, mussing Roxas's hair and kissing Naminé's cheek.

He doesn't know whether to feel inspired or crushed by Axel's flawless faҫade. It doesn't matter that everyone in the room (Roxas-excluded) knows of the redhead's affections.

Axel still has to pretend if he wants to be anything at all with Sora's twin. And the real-life application of Sora and Axel's parallelism nearly brings the brunet to his knees.

* * *

There's a feeling of unease when Sora is with Riku and Kairi. He knows he loves his best friend, the boy he's built forts with since kindergarten, the one who studies with him and calms him when he's too far in the stratosphere. He also knows he loves Kairi, almost as much as he resents her for taking Riku away from him.

Still, Sora does what he does best. He smiles and he grins and he laughs loud and mirthful. And sometimes he and Axel share a glance across the room, when Roxas kisses Naminé's pretty pink lips or when Riku takes Kairi's dainty hands into his own. Because they're joined now, he and Axel, partners of an unspoken agony.

And when Riku slips the ring onto Kairi's finger, years and years down the road, Sora is right by his side, beaming like the good best man he is as his heart wrenches and shatters and puddles atop the soles of his dress shoes.


End file.
